Page 14 of Defiant Beta

“He was totally checking you out,” Alicia whispers as we leave class and head for lunch before dance lessons in the ballroom.

I glance at her, still hot and flustered from our omega class. “Who?”

“The hot gardener.”

I snort. “Sure.”

“We all saw it,” Tali adds. “Shame he’s poor.”

I twist to face her. “What?”

“He’s an alpha with those pheromones, but he’s poor.” Her nose scrunches. “What a waste.”

“How is that a waste?”

“Regardless of how hot he might be under that scraggly beard, he will remain single, probably forever.” Lila releases a sad sigh.

“Or a poor omega can have him,” Alicia says. “I’m not mating with an alpha who has to work. What if he lost his job? What would happen to me?”

Thisis the type of omega that Haven aims to create. Extremely dependent and so submissive that they have no interest beyond looking good and being the perfect hostess.

Haven Academy kills brain cells.

Visiting instructors and teachers are a regular thing here. We have a fencing lesson tomorrow afternoon, something new to differentiate a cultured Haven Academy omega from a run-of-the-mill omega.

Aden and a few others claimed a table in the dining room and waved us over after we filled our trays. Usually busy blowing something up, I’m looking forward to this meal, if only so we can talk more about our omega lesson.

“Why does the math professor hate you?” Aden asks as I place my tray with salmon salad, a bottle of water, and an apple down beside him.

I shrug. “Not sure.”

“What makes you think he hates her?” asks a male omega who smells like lemon buttercream frosting. He must not have been in that class. He waves at me. “Hey, I’m Michael.”

I wave back. “Delilah.”

I dive into my salad as Aden fills him in on my math class from hell. When he’s done, the students who weren’t in the class turn to me with varying degrees of pity and alarm.

“He’s an ass,” Alicia mutters.

“Yup.” I mix more dressing into my salad. It’s not enough, but they won’t give me more. In Haven, every calorie counts. “I was thinking about love.”

“Love? You’re in love with the math professor?” River scrunches her nose.

Snorting, I shake my head. “No way. It will be a cold day in hell when I fall for that guy. What if you fell in love with someone and decided not to match at the end-of-year ball?”

Silence.

“I don’t think it’s something you can opt out of,” Lila says, her forehead furrowed.

“And anyway, the teachers have picked out the best, most eligible alpha bachelors.” Shannon twists the lid off her bottle of water.

“That’s more important than love?” I ask. “What if you met your scent match?”

It’s rare, and it only happens with an alpha and omega when their scents call to each other. Scents are the hallmarks of our society. Betas don’t have potent pheromones. We’re perfectly ordinary. Only alphas and omegas have epic, passionate love affairs fueled by scent compatibility.

Tali shrugs. “What’s the point of thinking about it? We match with a wealthy alpha, and that’s the way things are. Even if I met my scent match, what if he was poor? My mom would never agree. A legacy marriage is more important to my family than a scent match.”

She digs into her salad, no hint of bitterness or anger. Just calm acceptance.

---